Judge won’t toss Mardi Gras beads lawsuit

The good times were not rolling for Deborah Vincequere when she slipped and fell on Mardi Gras beads at a now-defunct Worcester club.

Vincequere went to see the long-running jump-blues combo Roomful of Blues perform at Union Blues on Fat Tuesday in 2004. As concert goers entered the club, they were handed strands of Mardi Gras beads. Vincequere and a friend both claim they observed several beads on every table in the venue. The owner admits handing beads to customers when they entered but denies putting beads on the table.

After her second trip to the dance floor, Vincequere slipped on a strand of beads that were on the floor, twisting her left leg around and injuring her left knee. She’s suing the club’s ownership, saying that it knew or should have known about the hazard caused by the bead giveaway. The nightclub asked a Superior Court judge to dismiss the suit.

But Judge Janet Kenton-Walker refused, noting that if it were proven that the beads were placed on the table, “it could be reasonably forseeable that patrons would pick up the beads that, during the course of the festivities, beads would end up on the floor.”